Horsehay Railway Modeller

Some more points now have power.

Having a break from the gardens. In my spare time yesterday evening and this morning I've begun rewiring the layout. I'm using the same methods as I did on cherrybrook. In fact I'm using the same point Motors! As I'm reusing the cobalt digitals, over the last week or so I have swapped all of the old wires for new piano wire long enough to go through the slightly thicker baseboards. So far I've mounted and tested all of the motors and I've begun wiring in power to the rails of the points as well as the point motors themselves. I've also added some felt feet to stop the wires from the point motors catching as they stick out just below the baseboards.

Thanks I'll look at some options

I should probably head to the library soon - sometimes I forget I have a degree to study . Just been pondering the last few bits for the raised area. First of all there is now a dog not best pleased to see the neighbours cat. I also need some advice. The garden with the large shed I am considering putting patio slabs for the whole area. I think the gardens would look a bit plain if they all had lawns. Would a slabbed garden look OK? The end garden is going to be another simple lawn but this time with painters and decorators storing ladders and cleaning paintbrushes in the garden. (there is already a painter in the lit upstairs bedroom) I also need advice on the allyway/ Lane at the side of the houses. I'm thinking of putting a decorators van here, any ideas for a model, Oxford diecast or similar? Also I quite like the idea of a 50s/60s concrete lamppost. Would this be realistic and any ideas for a decent working model. Cheers, David

Final bit of detailing for tonight. I've pai Ted up a bit of solder so now there is a hosepipe to help keep the lawn so pristine. Bit bloody fiddly

The bloody cat won't get down from the roof again!

A little work this evening. I decided to work on the next two gardens. They had soil coverage already. I glued in the 3d printed shed. Applied 2mm static grass to the lawns and used a mix of woodland scenics clump foliage, tasma products flowers. And some blue scale model scenery flowers. There is also a Bachmann figure, something tells me she's in her way to drag her husband from the shed! The second garden still needs work, I'm thinking of some stepping stones and a bench.

Finally the last major update is that I am starting to rip out the old arduino and servo control for the points and install the digital point Motors I had bought last year for cherrybrook. I have also joined Merg to get access to some of their feedback circuits and I will slowly add automation to this layout with dcc and raspberry pi. So far I have only placed everything down to see how it fits but soon I will start installing everything properly Right were finally up to date and now I can update this thread as and when I get work done between studies etc.

We're almost up to date. I had another break from the layout through November and December and returned to it at the start of January. A few weeks ago I weathered and detailed the yard a little more and started work in he gardens. So far I have an overgrown garden and a simple Lawn. I have also 3d printed some sheds I'll show when I move on to the next garden as well as some paving slabs.

I then glued in some. Bachmann figures and preiser animals around the layout.

The first job I worked on at uni was adding figures and details I had bought at parrs models whilst visiting family in Suffolk. I started with some woodland scenics I dustrial details in the yard, as well as static grass. I also installed a 3d printed fire barrel I made using a flickering orange led.

We're now caught up to when I moved back to uni. Just before leaving I made a removable fiddle stick and modified the lighting pelmet from cherrybrook to fit wcs. I also added name plates that I 3d printed.

For years I've wanted a war memorial somewhere on a railway, so I decided to add one on the raised section. The memorial itself is a 3d printed base with an airfix ww1 figure on top. I then used static grass, seafoam trees and scale model scenery flowers. Along with the leftover ratio fence.

The next area of attention was the raised section above the hidden sidings. Several months ago ( Christmas 2020 I believe) I made a scale mess del scenery terraced house kit. This was left as is until August 21 when I weathered it and glued it down. The gardens then received 3d printed fences which I painted and weathered with artists acrylics. I forgot to mention I also added some photos hopped photos to make a park backscene

Here's a close up of the weathering.

The lane then had static grass and foliage applied as well as weathering with pastels and the airbrush. The Land rover is oxford diecast and was weathered with my airbrush.

The next stage was to work on the coal yard and road. The coal yard received a healthy dose of black airbrush weathering followed by coal dust and coal in the Staithes. Hedges made of rubberised horsehair and fine turf were then added along with a 3d printed gate. The grounded van was also painted.

Plenty more to come, hoping to be up to date by the end of the week. Still in photos from August Photos above show very early progress that is improved upon in the next round of updates

I then devised the raining space into a small goods / storage yard and a country lane leading to the coal merchants. This features a weathered oxford diecast Land rover. I belive the fence is wills or ratio and brown cotton is used for the wires, a wills grounded van sits in the corner of the yard

Meanwhile the station had received extra detail consisting of the painted lamps, 3d printed flower pots with scale. Model scenery flowers. And a 3d printed sign. Bachmann passengers were later added.

A yard crane was assembled for the canal dock. I added a chain in place of the cotton suggested. The retaining walls were heavily weathered with the air brush and a coal merchant sign painted using a 3d printed stencil. Basic scatter of soil and tile grout were glued in place in the coal yard area.

I assembled and painted a wills coal office kit at the same time as modifying some gaugemaster lms Station lamps. The lamps were sprayed black and all glazing replaced with crystal clear.

The earliest photos on my phone still are from around August 21. Having Installed the station as discussed after a few weeks I decided to repaint all of the brickwork to match. A burnt umber paint was applied before going over the mortar with diluted deck tan. These photos are before weathering. You can also see sculptamold and brown paint applied to the coal sidings.

Thank you, Im going to try and write up everything that has been achieved over the next week or so.

Apologies for lack of posting, my summer was disrupted by some. Major personal events. Not much progress was made on coalorsdale before coming back to uni and not much progress was made over Christmas either. I will update this thread at some point with what little was accomplished but the bulk of the work I have done in recent months has been on West canal sidings.